Shane Gilchrist highlights recent album releases by musicians once in the headlines.
Formed by a group of Wellington Diamond United soccer players in the late 1960s, all English immigrants (Alec Wishart, Dave Luther, Ian Terry, Frankie Boardman and Billy Such), history was made when they popped down to their local studio in 1969 to record a few songs for posterity; the engineer recommended them to his HMV bosses, who signed the band up for a five-year contract.
The result?
Classics such as 1970 single Pretty Girl and 1971 follow-up Auntie Alice (Bought Us This).
This latest effort includes the group's best-known material, as well as Life Begins At 40, sung by Luther and recorded by Dave and the Dynamos (a band within the band).
There are also new recordings of Hypnotic and Grandad's Piano as well as the new I'm Just A Face In The Crowd.
Heaps of fun to be had here.
Five decades into his career, Neil Diamond has released an album of covers.
Comprising his favourite songs of rock-pop composers, Dreams also embraces lesser known material, as well as a reinterpretation of his own I'm A Believer, a big-seller in 1966 as the Monkees enjoyed a massive hit in a year dominated by the Beatles (whose delicate tracks Blackbird and Yesterday feature here).
Other songs include hidden gems Don't Forget Me by the late Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman's Feels Like Home and Losing You, Leonard Cohen's sublime Hallelujah and Leon Russell's under-rated A Song For You.
It might be wallpaper at times but, apparently, wallpaper is back in fashion.
